Ravindra, Coming from the humanities side of things (technical communication/digital humanities/gaming theory), there's a lot of work right now shaping up around an area of philosophy called Object Oriented Ontology, which asks whether like-buttons, algorithms, bots, etc. aren't actually actors within digital systems in the same way that humans are. A lot of folks, stemming from the work of Bruno Latour, have started to use the phrase 'non-human actors' to describe the ways components of digital systems actually write/communicate for us, or at least enable writing/communication in digital spaces. As is typical with the humanities, we are theoretically ahead of where we are research-wise with this, though: a lot of people in the humanities are thinking about this phenomena right now, but there are few (if any) empirical investigations of it that I could send you to... If you're interested, though: I have lots of sources in this area... -- "We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must undergo the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit-motives and property-rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism, are incapable of being conquered. America, the richest, most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way to this revolution of values." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking in 1969 at the Riverside Church in New York City http://bit.ly/jesEVV Guiseppe Getto Assistant Professor of New Media, Rhetoric, and Professional Writing English Department 114C Old Main SUNY-Cortland Cortland, NY 13045-0900 607-753-2080 (office) 517-574-8965 (cell) www.guiseppegetto.com Some small ways in which I try to enact Dr. King's message: Kiva microlending <http://kiva.org/invitedby/guiseppe3344> to merchants in the developing world The hunger site <http://www.thehungersite.com/> Care2's daily donation site <http://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/> My spiritua<http://www.guiseppegetto.com/personal-commitments/spirituality/>l commitments My commitment to wilderness<http://www.guiseppegetto.com/personal-commitments/wilderness/> areas My political <http://www.guiseppegetto.com/personal-commitments/politics/> commitments